Game 745
Canadiens 6, Maple Leafs 5 (SO)
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario

The Montréal Canadiens rallied with four goals in the third period before recovering for a 6-5 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

The Canadiens scored four times in 9:53 to take a 5-4 lead before Auston Matthews tied it 5-5 with 1:15 remaining in regulation and Michael Hutchinson pulled for the extra skater.

“That’s what we’re all about. We’re resilient, we’re going to work and continue to push,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. “We’ve been through this many times. We remember being in this building being up three goals (last season) and them coming back on us so it’s kind of nice to return the favour.”

Gallagher had a goal and two assists, Max Domi and Phillip Danault each had a goal and an assist, and Carey Price made 32 saves for the Canadiens (1-0-1). Paul Byron scored the only goal in the shootout.

“It wasn’t a great start for us,” Canadiens captain Shea Weber said. “For whatever reason, they were just on top of us for a couple periods. We didn’t panic and just kind of hit the reset button.”

Matthews scored two goals, Alexander Kerfoot had a goal and two assists, Trevor Moore had a goal and an assist, and Hutchinson made 37 saves for the Maple Leafs (2-0-1).

“We were back-to-back (defeated Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday), it’s no secret probably we’re going to be fatigued, but we can’t let that get in the way of us making boneheaded mistakes and costing us opportunities on the other end that they’re capitalizing on,” Matthews said. “It’s definitely something we can learn on. We’ve run into it in the past, but it’s on us to make sure no matter how tired we are, we’re making good decisions and taking care of the puck.”

After William Nylander scored on the power play at 5:16 of the third period to give Toronto a 4-1 lead, Jonathan Drouin scored 11 seconds later when his centering attempt went off Morgan Rielly’s skate to cut it to 4-2.

Gallagher scored at 6:29 on a rebound in front to make it 4-3.

Jeff Petry converted a penalty shot at 13:02 to tie it 4-4. He was awarded the penalty shot after Maple Leafs forward Kasperi Kapanen threw his broken stick at Petry, who had the puck at the point.

“Whether it was a penalty shot or on the power play, it was a good goal to be able to get the team going again,” Petry said. “We scored shortly after that again. It was a good way to come back. I don’t practice it very often.”

Kapanen, who had his stick broken after blocking Petry’s initial shot, said his intention was not to throw the stick directly at the Canadiens defenceman.

“I didn’t think I was even going to hit him, but I just threw my stick that way and I hit him and I guess you get a penalty shot for that,” Kapanen said. “I take full responsibility for my actions and they tied it up, so obviously I feel bad about it. It’s a big mistake on my part.”

Danault put in a loose puck during a scramble in front of the net at 15:20 to give Montréal a 5-4 lead.

Domi made it 1-0 at 1:08 of the first period on a 2-on-1 with Artturi Lehkonen.

Matthews tied it 1-1 at 5:57 with a one-timer off a pass from Rielly, and Kerfoot made it 2-1 at 15:54 when he one-timed a pass in the slot from Moore, who stole the puck from Nick Suzuki behind the net.

Moore extended the lead to 3-1 at 1:29 of the second period when he took a pass from Ilya Mikheyev on a 2-on-1 and beat Price blocker side.

NOTES: Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza was a healthy scratch for the second time this season…Matthews is the third player in Toronto history to have multiple season-opening goal streaks of at least three games (also did it in 2018-19), joining Corb Denneny (1917-18, 1921-22) and Babe Dye (1921-22, 1925-26)…Kerfoot’s three points tied his career high.

Story property of NHL.com, photo property of SB Nation

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BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL GOAL – 01:08 – Domi (Lehkonen, Gallagher)
TOR GOAL – 05:57 – Matthews (Rielly, Ceci)
MTL PEN – 11:11 – Tatar, holding
TOR GOAL – 15:54 – Kerfoot (Moore)
TOR PEN – 17:57 – Shore, tripping
MTL PEN – 18:53 – team, too many players

2nd Period
TOR PP GOAL – 01:29 – Moore (Mikheyev, Kerfoot)
MTL PEN – 05:02 – Drouin, slashing
MTL PEN – 09:11 – Tatar, tripping

3rd Period
MTL PEN – 04:07 – Danault, tripping
TOR PP GOAL – 05:16 – Nylander (Barrie, Kerfoot)
MTL GOAL – 05:27 – Drouin (Domi)
MTL GOAL – 06:29 – Gallagher (Weber, Tatar)
TOR PEN – 11:13 – Kerfoot, interference
MTL PEN SHOT GOAL – 13:02 – Petry
MTL GOAL – 15:20 – Danault (Gallagher, Weber)
TOR EA GOAL – 18:45 – Matthews (Barrie)

Overtime
TOR PEN – 00:57 – Tavares, slashing

Shootout
TOR SAVE – Matthews
MTL GOAL – Byron
TOR SAVE – Marner
MTL SAVE – Weal
TOR MISS – Tavares

GOALTENDERS
MTL – Price (W, 32-37)
TOR – Hutchinson (OTL, 37-42)

SHOTS ON GOAL
MTL – 11+10+12+9 = 42
TOR – 12+12+9+4 = 37

ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Keith Kinkaid, Carey Price. Defence: Ben Chiarot, Cale Fleury, Brett Kulak, Victor Mete, Jeff Petry, Shea Weber (C). Forwards: Joel Armia, Paul Byron (A), Phillip Danault, Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher (A), Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Nate Thomspon, Jordan Weal.
TOR – Goaltenders: Frederik Andersen, Michael Hutchinson. Defence: Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci, Martin Marincin, Jake Muzzin, Morgan Rielly (A), Rasmus Sandin. Forwards: Frédérik Gauthier, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, Alexander Kerfoot, Mitchell Marner (A), Auston Matthews, Ilya Mikheyev, Trevor Moore, William Nylander, Nick Shore, John Tavares (C), Dmytro Timashov.

TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 1-0-1 (.750)
TOR – 2-0-1 (.833)

ATTENDANCE
19,547

THREE STARS
⭐ Brendan Gallagher (MTL)
⭐⭐ Paul Byron (MTL)
⭐⭐⭐ Alexander Kerfoot (TOR)